It’s getting to be that time of year again.  We are about one third of the way through the schedule and the Twins record sits at 34-33.  This season can be summed up with one word:  Inconsitency. 

The Twins have shown inconsistency in hitting, pitching, fielding, base running.  All aspects of the game have been hit or miss.  It’s not as if one player is struggling.  It’s that all players are struggling all the time.  Sure there are guys who are statistically doing well.  Morneau, Hunter and Cuddyer come to mind.  That being said, they also have games where they completely disappear.  There is talk that the Twins need to trade for a third baseman that can hit.  I agree but I wonder whether that will make a difference

The pitching staff has been horribly inconsistent.  Santana is still striking out the side but he’s also given up the big inning and has been unable to keep the ball down in the strike zone.  Boof Bonser will have a game where he looks all world and is unbeatable.  The next game he’ll be mediocre at best.  Silva has been about as contant a factor as any of our pitchers.  Even he had a horrible last start. 

When asked about the Twins troubles, Gardy continues with the party line….  He throws out the old cliche of “We’re battling” and “We haven’t played together as a team”.  Yep, Gardy I would say that is about right.  The Twins have NOT played together as a team and their series to series ups and downs would point that out.  Losing two of three to the Nats and Brewers is not a good way to catch the Indians and Tigers.  Those are the teams that we need to beat.

In the next three weeks the Twins will go through what might be arguably the toughest stretch of their schedule.  The Twins will play at the Mets, Yankees, Detroit and a host of other teams that are over the .500 mark. 

This stretch of games will be the ultimate test as to whether the Twins think that they can contend.  With the inconsistent play that has plagued them thus far, they could easily drop to 10 or more games behind the Indians and Tigers if they continue down the same path.

I guess that we’ll have to wait and see.  I’m trying to be optimistic but I just don’t like our chances.

This is not exactly what I was thinking of prior to the start of the second and final round of interleague play.  The American League once again dominated interleague.  The one exception was the Twins horrible performance over the weekend against the perennial National League doormat – the Nationals. 

This was to be a series that would jumpstart our season.  After all, we had Silva and Santana on the mound.  We should have won at least two of three from the hapless Nats.  Last year at this time we were in roughly the same position.  A year ago today, the Twins were 28-34 and were 11.5 games out of first place.  This year we’re only slightly better while sitting at 30-31 and a mere 7.0 games behind the first place Indians.  Last year interleague play put the Twins onto a role that would carry them all the way to the playoffs…  The Nats were supposed to be that team that started the ball rolling…  So much for that idea!

The Twins decided NOT to show up this weekend.  Silva had his worst game of the year.  Santana was outshined by a former Twin, Levale Speigner, who was only mediocre at Triple-A Rochester.  The Twins bats continue to look as if they are on life support.  Morneau went 0-5 yesterday and went 3-13 during the series.The Twins start a three game series at home tomorrow against the Atlanta Braves.  The Braves haven’t visited the Metrodome since interleague play in 2002. Odds and Ends:

• Ty Wiggington has been a name thrown around in a possible trade with the Twins.  We need a productive third baseman and the Devil Rays are in need of young pitchers.  Sounds like a trade made in heaven. 
• Twins GM Terry Ryan stated that money is no object when making mid-season acquisitions….  Why don’t I believe that????
• Scott Baker had his spot in the pitching rotation skipped in favor of Kevin Slowey.  This was done to keep Santana on a regular 5 day rotation.
• The Twins continue to destroy last year’s attendance numbers despite their sorry record.  The Twins have drawn 814,874 fans with an average of 27,162.  That is almost 4,000 more fans per game than last year.  At this pace the club should draw more than 2.2 million this year.

In a move that Ron Gardenhire hopes will jump start our offense, it appears that Gardy will put Joe Mauer second in the batting order once he returns for the homestand that starts this Friday.  Over the past few years, it has been no secret that Joe is able to get on base.  Over the past two years Joe’s OBP is .429 and .446.  His career OBP is .402. 

Gardy has been hesitant to put Joe second in the order.  The unofficial rule of thumb is states that the best batter on the team should bat third.  The problem is that most batting orders don’t have a black hole called Punto or Cirillo batting right before.  Now that Joe should finally crack the lineup this is a perfect time to make a change.  Gardy seems ready to do whatever necessary to jumpstart the club.  Currently the Twins are sitting at 28-29 and look nothing like the team that they were last year.  The piranhas have lost their appetite and the only hitters to show up this year are Morneau, Cuddy and Hunter.  The new order will now look like this:

Castillo/Mauer/Cuddyer/Morneau/Hunter/Kubel/DH/Bartlett/Punto

The fans, the media and the analysts have been clamoring for this move for quite some time.  Moving Joe will allow Castillo and Mauer to likely be on base prior to having the big sticks step to the plate.  Personally I think that this change will give the Twins something that they have rarely had all year…..  Early inning leads. 

Let’s hope for the best and thank God that today is the last day of our West Coast death trip.  Bring on the National League!

Up.  Down.  Up.  Down.  When does this ride end?  I’ll be honest.  My stomach is starting to get a little queasy.  I loved the positivity that was coming out of the Twins camp over the last week.  That was until we ran directly into the Oakland A’s and Anaheim Angels. 

After winning the first game of the Oakland series, we somehow managed to go cold.  Ice cold.  Billy Beane would be very proud of his squad.  They had the clutch hits, ran the bases well and gave our low-budget small market team a lesson that could have easily been included in the book Moneyball.  The A’s were doing all the little things right.  Meanwhile our squad could not hit the ball to save its life in the final two games of the series.  During those last two games the Twins 3-4-5 batters were a combined 1-11.  In the last game of the series the Twins left an amazing 11 runners on base. 

Last night’s game was not looking any better.  I had some hopes that Boof would come out and shut down the Angels of Anaheim…or was it Los Angeles Angels….  I can never remember.  Either way, I had hoped that Boof would get us back to our winning ways.  That did not happen.  From the first inning it was very obvious that Boof was not in a groove.  He had little control and he could not get his curveball and slider over for strikes.  That is his strikeout pitch and without it he’s very hittable.  Boof left the game in the 5^th inning after he scattered three hits in a row.  Several relievers and innings later, a game that was at one time manageable was now a complete blowout.  Final score:  Angels 16 Twins 3.

For whatever reason the Angels have our number….  Stupid Rally Monkey! Tonight is another game.  Let’s hope that Scott “one more bad start and I’m replaced by Garza” Baker can put the team on his back.Anything could happen.  After all this rollercoaster of a season has to turn upwards sometime.   

Up until recently, whenever a discussion of Mauer vs. Prior comes up I have ALWAYS leaned towards Joe Mauer. He has all the skills. He can hit. He can throw. He is deceptively fast on the basepaths. All signs pointed towards Mauer and I always used to thank heavens that we took him over Prior. The knock on Prior has always been his health. When health Prior has shown dominant skills. While I haven’t changed my opinion (and I am still thrilled that we took Mauer), I am starting to wonder about the health of Joe and whether he is actually any less injury prone than Prior.

His most recent quad injury that has kept him on the shelf for about a month makes me really wonder what is going on with him. Now, I am not doubting Joe and his injury. I am sure that it exists. On the other hand, I have to wonder about Joe’s durability and toughness. I have never known of anyone who has a “buised” quad to be out for so long. Also, does this most recent issue really require a stint on the DL?

I am not about to put all the blame on Joe. Considering that he is the reigning batting champ and hometown hero, I am sure that the Twins organization is being extra careful with him. I must wonder though whether this isn’t something that he just needs to learn to play through. You see guys like Torii “hit me in the face with a fastball and i’ll still play tomorrow” Hunter, Mike “foultip to the groin” Redmond and even Justin “I’ll play with a broken nose” Morneau being very gutty and playing through pain. Maybe it’s time that Joe learn that not everyday will be pain free. There will be times during his career that he will have to gut things out.

As I am writing this, I just heard an interview with Terry Ryan… He just said that Joe will be out “probably another two weeks”.

What? Wasn’t he supposed to be ready yesterday?

The reason for the delay was stated as being “tightness” in Joe’s leg. No pain, just tightness……

Thank goodness for Mike Redmond. I wonder how patient the Twins and fans would be if Redmond was batting .220…..

Get well soon Joe!

Today I read an interesting article by Chicago Sun Times staff reporter Joe Cowley.  You can read the article here.

The premise of the article is this:  The Twins play dirty and are never called on it because they are the cute, loveable small market team from a fly-over state.  As I read this article I couldn’t help but chuckle.  Do the Chicago WhiteSox with all their arrogance really believe that the Twins play dirty???  Cowley uses the following examples as reasoning for why the Twins are a dirty team.

1.  In the 9th inning, Nick Punto (who Cowley describes as Gizmo from the Gremlins), slides hard into second base.  He suggests that Punto deliberately hits Tadahito Iguchi in the ribs.

2.  Cowley references the hit that Torii Hunter put on WhiteSox catcher Jamie Burke a few years back.

That’s it folks.  He uses those two instances as evidence that the Twins are dirty.  He also goes on to say that because the WhiteSox are the bad “big-market” team that they are always picked on.  When AJ tries to step on Morneau’s foot TWICE, he gets boo’d and made to be evil.  When AJ gets into an altercation with Michael Barrett he is made to be evil by the national press.  Punto gets no attention for what he did to Iguchi.  Hunter gets applauded for making a play. 

My question is this…. Why did Cowley interview two players (incedentially the two who are the biggest idiots on the whole team) to talk about how “dirty” the Twins are.  Where is the quote from Iguchi.  Where is the quote from Ozzie about how the Twins play?  I seem to recall that Ozzie loves how the Twins play and hates how his team is now…

My response to Cowley is ARE YOU FOR REAL?  The Twins are cute, soft and cuddley.  Yes, we are hard-nosed.  No, we don’t rely on the 3-run homerun to win games.  Yes, we do the little things right.  No, we don’t constantly overpay and underperform (a la the WhiteSox).  No, we do not have personalities on our team who are idiots in front of the camera and on print. 

We do our business and we do it right.  This is a great example of a homer staff writer who is looking for a story from a team that is losing games, has the worst batting average in baseball and has a HORRIBLE pitching staff. 

To cap off the whole article, he alludes to the fact that the WhiteSox would somehow retaliate for the dirty Twins play.

I say…. BRING IT ON.  We’ll be waiting in July and we’ll kick the crap out of you then.

Cowley….  Your an idiot!